Most educational professionals will tell me that this is the time when I’m supposed to say that we are about to embark on a magical year, full of enjoyment, rewarding experiences, extraordinary growth, and for all you new families, the fulfillment of all of your educational hopes and dreams for your children. But I won’t—no, I can’t—promise that. There will be good times, for sure. But I won’t promise all of that, in part because I can’t keep that promise on my own. The kind of year you will have—the kind of year we all will have—depends upon all of us. That is, after all, what it means to be a community.

But I also won’t promise you a magical year of rainbows and sugar plums, because it just isn’t true, even if everything goes exactly right. There’s a reason Mortimer Adler wrote an essay about education entitled Invitation to the Pain of Learning. 

Now, I see that a few of you students got braces or a palate expander over the summer. Congratulations . . . and also, I’m sorry. I remember being quite excited about getting braces put on when I was young . . . until they actually put the things on my teeth; and then I couldn’t wait to get them off.

I imagine it’s probably been a bit painful for you, certainly uncomfortable, to have all that metal in your mouth. It also has required you to give up certain foods, and let’s be honest, it’s some of the most enticing foods: taffy, popcorn, jolly ranchers, caramel chews, corn on the cobb, tootsie rolls, and even gum. And then there’s the tightening: every night for the palate expander and every few weeks for the braces. Maybe you even have rubber bands that pull and torque your jaw. And it all hurts—sometimes a little, and sometimes a lot; sometimes briefly, and sometimes for a while.

Now, why on earth would your parents do that to you? To torture you? To make sure you can’t enjoy your summer? To starve you? No, of course not. It is to bring your unruly teeth and jaw into alignment.

But here’s the thing: The braces and expander and rubber bands won’t work properly if you don’t wear them, if you don’t let the orthodontist tighten them, and if you keep breaking them by eating all those forbidden confections (or if you complain to your parents until they finally relent). On the other hand, if you are diligent with your own responsibilities, if you trust the orthodontist, and if you accept the pain and discomfort—not as an injustice to your mouth, but as what it actually is, a sign that the thing is working—then in the end, those braces will come off, and you’ll be sporting a beautiful, good, and true smile that you’ll get to keep for the rest of your life.

You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?

In a sense, you might say that CCA is an orthodontist of the heart and mind. We’re going to stretch and pull and tighten. We’re going to close gaps. And we’re going to stay on you about doing your part to not consume junk and be diligent at home. And it’s going to be a bit painful at times.  But if you want to get a straight “smile” out of it, then that’s what we ought to expect, because that’s what it takes.

No, I won’t promise a magical year full of pleasure, because that’s just what it would be: Pure Magic.  Instead, I’ll tell you the truth, in Mortimer Adler’s immortal words:

“‘Education’ all wrapped up in attractive tissue is the gold brick that is being sold in America today on every street corner. Everyone is selling it, everyone is buying it, but no one is giving or getting the real thing because the real thing is always hard to give or get . . . Unless we acknowledge that every invitation to learning can promise pleasure only as the result of pain, can offer achievement only at the expense of work, all of our invitations to learning, in school and out, whether by books, lectures, or radio and television programs will be as much buncombe as the worst patent medicine advertising, or the campaign pledge to put two chickens in every pot.”

So, this is your friendly reminder: Your orthodontic appointment of the heart and mind is set for Wednesday, August 19 at 7:50am. We look forward to seeing you then. Good night!